HC stays trial court order dropping MCOCA in Pune blast case

Admitting an appeal by the ATS, the Bombay High Court today stayed a special court order dropping charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against all the eight accused in Pune's Jangli Maharaj Road serial blasts case.
A bench of Justices P V Hardas and Anuja Prabhudesai stayed the August 2 order of designated judge of MCOCA court A L Pansare, who had ruled that MCOCA cannot be applied to the accused as terrorist activities were not aimed at pecuniary gains, as defined under the Maharashtra law.
While dropping the charge, the judge had said a person cannot be identified as offender simultaneously under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and MCOCA.

The MCOCA court had, however, kept its order in abeyance for a month to enable the ATS move the high court in appeal.
The bench posted the appeal for hearing on September 16, according to public prosecutor Raja Thakre who appeared with Advocate General Darius Khambata in the High Court.
The ATS argued that when there was material to attract the provisions of both UAPA and MCOCA there was no ground to drop the charge under the latter law. The public prosecutor said the order could have repercussions on other cases too.

The eight accused are Asad Khan, Imran Khan, Sayed Feroz, Irfan Landge, Muneeb Memon, Farooq Bagwan, Arif Bayabani and Aslam alias Bunty Jageerdar.

The defence argued that both MCOCA and UAPA cannot be applied together. They contended that the investigating agency had said the blasts were an act of terror and so MCOCA, which is generally invoked against organised crime syndicates, cannot be applied against them.
Contesting their argument, Thakre said there was no provision in the law which prohibited invoking both the laws together.
On August 1, 2012, four co-ordinated low-intensity explosions had occurred between 7.25 pm and 11.30 pm in Pune in which a man was injured. Bombs planted at two other places were, however, defused. According to the prosecution, the blasts were engineered allegedly by Indian Mujahideen.